Iakovos Rizos or Iacovos Rizos ( Greek: Ιάκωβος Ρίζος Greek pronunciation: [iˈa.ko.vos ˈɾi.zos]), also known as Jacques Rizo, [1] (c. 1849 – 1926) was a Greek painter who worked primarily in Paris.
Rizos was born in Athens; he was the grandson of Iakovos Rizos Neroulos and his brother was a civil engineer. [2] He went to Paris as a young man, studied with Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux Arts, [2] [3] and spent his career there. He died there in 1926. [4]
Rizos was a friend of Renoir and associated with the Impressionists, and much admired Degas' work after he first moved to Paris, but his own style was academic. [3] [4] Many of his paintings portray elegantly dressed women; he less often painted landscapes, in an Impressionist-influenced style. [3] He exhibited a number of times at the Paris salons, beginning with a portrait of his sister, Mrs. Paparrigopoulos, which he re-worked for the 1878 Paris exposition. [2] In 1875 his portrait of "Miss R." in a black silk dress with violet sleeves was noted by one critic as one of the finest portraits in the show. [5] In 1877 his Indolence, a nude, was praised by one critic except for the execution of the head, [6] and by another praised for the colouration but faulted for the drawing, particularly of the hands and feet. [7]
Rizos' Athenian Evening or On the Terrace of 1897 won a silver medal at the 1900 Paris exposition and was praised at the 1899 art exhibition in Athens. [3] It depicts an officer talking to two women on a terrace at sunset, with the Acropolis in the background, in contrast to the more common depictions of Greece in 19th-century painting that focus on rural life. [8] It is a noted example of the juxtaposition of sophisticated urban life with the country's past grandeur, which was a theme of Greek artists in the late 19th and 20th centuries. [9] [10] It and a number of his other paintings are in the Coutlides Collection at the National Gallery of Greece; [3] there are also several in private collections in both Athens and Paris. [4]
At the 1897 salon, Albert-Gustave Belleroche exhibited a portrait of Rizo. [11] [12]